Portugal's Joao Sousa drew on his experience to end Elias Ymer's sensational run at the 2022 Maharashtra Open with a remarkable three-set win to enter the singles final at the Balewadi Stadium here on Saturday.
Sousa fought back from a set down to win the nail-biting semi-final 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 at the fourth edition of South Asia's only ATP-250 event. He will now take on sixth-seeded Emil Ruusuvuori in the summit clash on Sunday.
Earlier, Ruusuvuori held his nerve during the crucial second-set tie-breaker to secure a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6 (7-0) victory against Kamil Majchrzak and seal his berth in the final. The final matches of singles, as well as doubles categories, will be played on Sunday.
Ymer, who stunned the top-seed and the World No. 15 Aslan Karatsev in the earlier round to earn the biggest win of his career, made a confident start to race to a 4-1 lead but Sousa recovered well in time to draw level at 5-5. However, Ymer regrouped and pocketed the set to take 1-0 lead in the match.
Regarded as the best Portuguese player of all time, the former World No. 28, capitalised on the momentum gained towards the end of the opening set and led 4-1 in the second set. Sousa took away the set 7-4 in the tie-breaker.
The 32-year-old experienced campaigner put pressure on Ymer, who was in search for his first ATP title, giving him a neck-and-neck fight in the decider and successfully titled the momentum in his favour in a gruelling contest that lasted for more than three hours.
( With inputs from ANI )
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